Locations

The HZI is continuously building a network of closely aligned strategic partnerships with universities, research institutions and hospitals. Its primary objective is to create synergies which establish the optimal conditions for an efficient transfer of knowledge from basic research to medical application: HZI Locations.

The Strategy of the HZI

Learn more about how the HZI, with its translational focus, will help to facilitate a faster and more targeted approach when it comes to fighting and preventing existing, emerging or recurring infectious diseases.

Working at the HZI

Around 900 employees in research, administration and infrastructure, and about 220 visiting scientists from 40 different countries are employed at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research. To ensure top quality research we need top quality employees. Your creativity and innovative capabilities are the basis for the long-term success of our work. That's why we undertake a great deal to attract the best people to us. Learn more about this.

Feature

Systems BiologyThe goal of systems biology is to describe the dynamic processes of life and of biological systems using mathematical models. In line with the foundation of the new Braunschweig Integrated Centre of Systems Biology (BRICS) we have compiled some background information about systems biology for you: To the systems biology feature.

Actinobacteria Metabolic Engineering

The growing resistance towards established antibiotics presents a serious problem especially with infectious diseases. The development of new drugs is mainly based on known molecules and mechanisms, which allows bacteria to assimilate rapidly. Hence, scientists are looking for novel drugs. At the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), a branch of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) at Braunschweig, the researchers develop new pathways, by which they force actinomycetes to produce hitherto unknown compounds.

Our Research

Actinomycetes are a well-known and very intensively examined group of bacteria. They have produced various antibiotics and antitumor drugs and are industrially used to produce antibiotics and agro chemicals. Despite them being thoroughly studied, a huge potential remains still to be revealed. The scientists at HIPS focus on the unused genes of the bacteria. These “silent genes” potentially contain the genetic information for new drugs. Researchers therefore expect to find different interesting natural products after activating such clusters.

The concept to find and wake up such silent gene cluster is already used with different microorganisms. However, to activate silent genes in actinomycetes is especially demanding. Some of the strains cannot be manipulated at all by conventional techniques. They immediately remove unknown material from the cells. To circumvent this defence mechanism, the specialists for metabolic engineering have developed a new technology. They incorporate artificial transposons, so-called jumping genes, into the actinomycetes. To use transposons for the genetic manipulation of bacteria is also common, but the kind of transposon the Saarbrücken researchers work with is new. The transposons are not generated from bacteria but assembled synthetically. In the genome of the actinomycetes, they function as random generator for mutations and switch genes randomly on and off. The newly generated metabolic compounds or functionalities, which are switched off in the mutant, can be assigned to specific genes.

Bachelor & MasterAre you interested in a bachelor or master thesis? We are looking forward to your request!

Video

HIPS Infofilm (English)

Resistance to antibiotics has become one of the major global challenges regarding infectious diseases. This is specifically the issue that is being tackled by the new Helmholtz-Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS).